Abstract

Background

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a major worldwide health problem, involving more than half a million new patients yearly, with a different incidence in different parts of the world. Hepatocellular carcinoma develops in about 80% of cirrhotic patients, and cirrhosis is considered the strongest predisposing factor for it. Surgical resection and liver transplantation are conventional treatment modalities that can offer long-term survival for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Objectives

To assess the benefits and harms of surgical resection compared with those of liver transplantation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Search methods

We searched The Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group Controlled Trials Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) in The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) at ISI Web of Science (last search February 2013). We also searched the abstracts from annual meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), provided through The Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group until February 2013.

Plain language summary

The two main treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma are liver transplantation and liver resection. To compare these two methods with each other, we searched literature databases until February 2013 for randomised clinical trials comparing hepatic resection versus liver transplantation as the methods of managing hepatocellular carcinoma. None of the identified studies met our inclusion criteria. There were no randomised clinical trials found that could be included for analysis in this review. No randomised clinical trials could support or refute surgical resection compared with liver transplantation for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.